Churachandpur DC Stresses Importance of Census, Says Delimitation Will Be Based on the Exercise

A three-day training programme for field trainers for Phase I of the Census (House Listing and Housing Census) for Pherzawl and Churachandpur districts began in Churachandpur district, Manipur.

The inaugural session, attended by the Deputy Commissioners of both districts, who are also the Principal Census Officers, was held at the District Panchayat Resource Centre (DPRC), Mini Secretariat, Tuibong.

Speaking at the inaugural function, Churachandpur Deputy Commissioner Krishna Kumar requested the field trainers to take the training seriously so that they could effectively train the supervisors and enumerators.

Highlighting the importance of the census, the Deputy Commissioner said, "Based on this census, we will be able to gather data, and data-driven policies will be prepared by the state or the Central Government. When we talk about Parliament or State Assembly seats, those are also going to be decided based on the outcome of the current exercise."

Stating that the delimitation exercise will be completely based on the census, Krishna Kumar said, "We need to understand the sensitivity and importance involved in the census exercise."

Speaking to the media after the inaugural session, Joint Secretary, Government of Manipur, Yaseer Khan said, "For census operations, some master trainers have been appointed by the Government of Manipur. There are around 10 of us, and we have been assigned to different districts to train the field trainers, who will, in turn, impart training to the enumerators who will be going to the field."

Yaseer said the training will be conducted over three days, during which the field trainers will be taught what the census is about, how to conduct the census, how to carry out house listing, and all the guidelines and procedures included in the census.

The field trainers will, in turn, impart training to the supervisors and enumerators who will be going to the field.

"For the first time, this is going to be a mostly digital census because the government has developed an application that can be downloaded on a mobile phone. The house listing and census operations will be carried out through that application. However, there will also be written documents if the need arises, but the process will be mostly digital," the Joint Secretary added.

Calling for public cooperation, Yaseer appealed to the people to provide accurate information whenever enumerators visit their households so that the census operations can be conducted successfully.